A Wolf's Life
by bookgirl18
Summary: Rhydian's point of view of the series, with alterations and extensions.
1. Wolf, Alone

**I don't own Wolfbloods, Debbie Moon and the other writers and producers do.**

 **Warning. I have always thought the characters were older than fourteen, so I wrote them how I imagined that they would act, only that they would be sixteen. Yes, this means snogging and swearing. Wolfblood is a kids TV show, and nothing like that would be included, so I did that here. I altered some of their interactions and created new ones.**

 **Maddy's dialect: My is me; me, us; us, we; we, our, and our, oor. I won't use it all the time, because Maddy doesn't, but I'll try to keep it consistent.**

 **This is kind of a stream of conscious, first person point of view sort of thing of the series. Each chapter is based off an episode, with some alterations, and extensions. It's the first time I've written like this, so any corrections or advice would be appreciated. I don't have a beta, and do all of my corrections as I write.**

Wolf, alone

I wonder how long this will last? If I'm lucky, probably for a few months, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I made my way through the school, looking for room number 17, and entered the room.

The teacher was a middle aged man, with graying hair. "Welcome aboard. My name is Mr. Jeffries. I'm your head of year as well as your form tutor, so you will be seeing a lot of me over the next year. Everyone! This is Rhydian Morris who, I am guessing, is from Wales."

Three more students walked in while Mr. Jeffries was talking, a black boy, a red head girl, and a pretty brunette.

I had turned to face the class. The classroom looked like every other classroom in existence, desks in rows, the whiteboards, the teacher's desk up in front. The students didn't change, either, as there were the popular girls, gossiping to each other, the jock boys, talking about the most recent football game, and the nerds, sitting quietly, waiting for class to start.

"No." I glared quickly at the teacher, and then turned back to face the front.

"Ok, he's not from Wales, ok. Sue me." The brown-haired girl that was still standing, talking to her friends, from the looks of it.

"Baa, baa... Baa..," called one of the boys.

"Quiet, everyone," Mr. Jeffries tried to call the class to order.

She turned to me. "You smell like my parents," she said, sounding very serious. and very weird. Everyone started laughing, and I couldn't tell if it was at her, or me, or both.

"Maddy, Maddy, sit down, thank you. Rhydian, you too." The weird girl sat down, still staring at me.

"Baa, baa," the boy continued, and Mr Jefferies called out, "Quiet everyone. Quiet!", still attempting to control the class. I started walking towards an empty seat.

"Jennie." "Wake up." At the sound of her name being called, and a nudge from her friend, a girl jerked awake. I went past them, and drew nearer these three girls, the ones that I could tell would be the pretty, vapid ones. They were all looking at me, and I focused on going towards an empty seat in the back.

"James. James. If I hear one more sheep noise coming from the back of the class, you will regret it."

The brown-haired girl, Maddy, was still staring at me, all throughout class.

* * *

As I hurried down the stairwell, trying to find my next class, and avoid being late on my first day, the weird girl came down and cornered me.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily, blocking me from moving further along the stairs.

"What?" I questioned, confused, lost in a new school. "I'm looking for the physic -" "No, here, on out territory. Don't you know the rules?" What the hell is she talking about? Territory? Rules?

"You can't stay here. If me mam and dad get a sniff of you." "I don't even know you." Sniff me out, who does she think I am, and just who is this crazy girl, telling me what to do? Territory? Smelling? What is she on about?

"Exactly." What? What does that mean? "I don't care whose territory it is. I'm not sticking around, anyway. I mean, why would I, in this dump." Some of the anger leaves her face, allowing me to relax a little. "But no smelly girl tells me when to stay or go." I push past her, eager to be away from a girl that is clearly insane.

A break, finally. I just want the day to be over. I'm still tired from last night. I can hear that weird girl talking to her friends about me, all upset that I called her smelly.

I shook my head, removing her from my thoughts, and focused on my sketch of a wolf. I brought out my charcoal pencil and two smudgers, and started from where I had left off earlier, with shading the leftmost tree.

"Wow, that looks incredible," a boy behind me said. I didn't care to look and see who it was. And now that he came and started talking to me, I can't work. What does he want?

"You're really good, you know." Why are you here? Go back to your weird friends. Deciding that he wasn't going to leave, I turned toward him. Recognizing him as the black boy from Mr Jeffries class, and friends with the weird, smelly girl, I asked him pointedly, "What do you want?" Just tell me, and then leave me in peace.

"Just wanted to know if you liked football."

"Not really." Now _please_ leave, I want to get back to my sketching.

"Because, you know, it's a really good way to make friends." I'm not going to be here long enough, so why bother. Why won't he leave? I'd best make him, then.

"I don't like football, and I don't want to hang around with you and your weirdo mate. You got that?" Leave. Me. Alone. I turn back to my sketchbook, and hear him say "Yeah, I got that."

Finally, I can sketch, in peace. When will today be over.

"Obviously they don't teach manners in Wales." I'm not Welsh. Do not hit the idiot boy. I would have been a little nicer if you hadn't come over and started annoying me. I'm going to ignore him, and his weird friends. Shaking my head to remove him from my thoughts, I focus on my drawing again, wanting the break to be over.

* * *

Ignore the annoying people. Today is almost over. I hope there's some meat in my dinner, but it's doubtful, as the Vaughns are vegetarians. All I had was a stick of celery and some more vegetables with what looked like hummus. I need to find a way to eat some meat, I can't live off of vegetables. Ignore the annoying people. I could feel the heat rising inside me, as I grew more irritated and angry. Do not hit the annoying people. Do not hit - fine, I'm going to hit him, and enjoy it.

I threw the celery of the annoying boy, Jimi. He turned and started to walk toward me.

"Got a problem, Bleat boy?" He came up to me, and shoved me, so I pushed him down, grasping him by the front of his shirt, and growling. I can feel the anger pull more fiercely at me, trying to take over.

I noticed the veins on the back of my hand were turning black, and in shock, I released Jimi. I could hear someone approaching, and Mr. Jefferies' voice called out, "What on earth is going on here?" Maddy then grabbed me from behind, muttering a quick "Come on," and being too stunned to move, allowed her. I could see Mr. Jeffries stalking toward the group, continuing his inquiry into what was happening.

Maddy turned and locked the door of the darkroom."What are you doing? Get out, you have to get out." I was backing away from her, and the door putting as much distance between my secret and the world. I can feel the anger pulling at my veins, and I felt hot all over. I could feel a Change coming. I backed into a bookcase, and it collapsed on me. "Argh!"

I was now trapped! I need to get out! I shoved the bookcase off of me, but it was too late, I couldn't stop the Change. "I'm so sorry." I was sorry that she was going to see this, and was going to either get bitten or killed. I changed, and she looked scared. She was backing away from me, slowly. I need to escape, I need to get out, before I hurt her! I jumped past her, toward what looked like the safety of an area underneath a table.

Maddy started moving towards me. I growled at her, hoping to get her to stop it, but she didn't listen. She kept moving towards me, so I snarled at her, and tried to escape, jumping up onto the tables against the wall, knocking over the one I had hidden under in the process. As I ran over the tables, stuff fell off of them, making a loud noise as the fell.

Maddy stepped forward, and I started to growl again. She began to kneel down on one leg, lowering her arm at the same time, and as she did, I grew calmer. When she was fully on the ground, I sat, wondering what she would do next. When she raised her head, her eyes were glowing yellow. She's like me! I'm not the only one! She's like me!

As I was swept with relief, I Changed back. She started cleaning up the room that she had shoved us in. I was too excited to help. I needed to tell her how amazing this was, I thought I was the only one.

"I knew there was something about you. But when your eyes went - it's true isn't it? You're like me. You're like me." She turned towards me, furious. "I'm not like you. I don't show off, pick fights, invade other pack's territory. You're a danger to us all." She started to move towards me.

There's packs of people like us? "And the sooner you leave the better." Is she threatening me? Just then, the black boy from earlier entered the room, looking at the mess I had caused due to my panic. The red headed girl followed behind him, asking cautiously, "What happened in here?" Knowing that I couldn't answer, I just started to leave, feeling guilty, and alone.

They moved to stop me from leaving, but I wasn't really listening to them at this point, but one thing that Maddy said pierced through the haze and struck me to my core. "Let him go. He doesn't belong here." I turned slightly, catching a glimpse of her face, still furious.

Another place where I can't leave, or stay. Brilliant. It's just a matter of time before I get chucked out of the Vaughns as well. I can't stay here. I need to run.

* * *

Just run. Leave behind the anger, and the pain. I'm not good enough. How long before I have to leave? Weeks? Months? Or days? Forget it, just run.

As I got farther from the school, I slowed my pace, the anger still inside me, but not as violent as it was earlier. I hear someone run up behind me, only to hear Maddy call my name. "Don't worry, I'm out of here." I assured her, still walking, and still angry.

She caught up with me, tugging at my arm. My anger kept me from reacting from the foreign touch. "Don't! I was stupid. I'm sorry. Don't go, we can help you."

Hearing her say that made me angry all over again. "Help! I've had help. Counseling, Ritalin." "We really can help." That's what they said too. There's nothing wrong with me! "You need to learn to control your wolf-self before someone gets hurt. Probably you." She pushed herself in front of me, forcing me to stop. "You're just like the rest of them." And with that, I took off running.

I didn't hear her follow me, so I slowed down, only for her to come out of the trees, ahead of me. How did - "I know about the Vaughns. I know you're alone." I've always been alone, what does that matter? "So?" "I'm like you, you saw that."

Years of anger and frustration just poured out of me. I needed her to know. "You may be like me. You think the same as them. You're just trying to make me better. But you Know what? What I am, what I turn into, that is better. It's better than anything I've ever known, and i'm not going to let anyone take it away from me."

"I'm not going to let you go." "Go ahead, chase me. Stop me. Use your wolfy powers and see how long it takes for someone to find out what you are. Because none of your mates know your little secret, do they?" Judging by the scared and angry look on her face, the answer was no. "Thought not. I've got nothing to lose here, unlike you." And with that, I turned and ran into the woods, only for her follow me. I ran as fast as I could, but every time I looked back, Maddy was behind me. I changed direction, and climbed up a tree. Maddy looked so confused when she couldn't find me, it was pretty cute. I couldn't help but laugh. I jumped down from the tree, and took off running again, enjoying being chased, knowing she was only a few steps behind me. I was more awake, more alive, than ever. I couldn't stop smiling, and she caught me as I jumped off of a tree stump, making us roll down the hill. After we finished rolling, we noticed the group of people, including Maddy's friends, staring at us like they've never seen us before.

We got up quickly, brushing off leaves and stepping away from each other. "Sorry we're late, everyone. Seen any badgers yet?"

"No. You two have scared off any animal for miles." The teacher was angry, to say the least, and turned to address the class. "I'm sorry everyone. We'll have to come back another day."

The redhead frantically asked the students as they were leaving, "Come join a photography club." The other boy just said "Anyone?" The redhead turned to us, saying "Well done, Mads." "Yeah, we were so close to getting new members, and then you two had to show up and mess everything up." He said, angry, moving towards Maddy when she spoke.

"There was something important I had to -" "What, more important than the Photography Club, yeah?" He sounded disbelieving, like there was nothing more important. "Yeah, actually." Maddy was getting annoyed as well, and - "Rhydian is more important than the club." Wait, what? Where are you going with this? "The thing is, Rhydian and I... are related." She looked at me, as if asking for help, but I didn't know what to say. "Distant cousins." Maddy sounded more enthusiastic, more believable in her lie. "He's the black sheep of the family, and I didn't want him here." I tried to look like what she was saying wasn't news to me, trying to figure out how I could make it sound more believable. "So I treated him badly, which is why he lashed out and trashed the dark room. You don't have to be best friends, but Rhydian is part of my life now. And that's that." They just looked at each other, deciding to believe Maddy, I guessed. "Ok. Sure" The redhead nodded. "Welcome to Stoneybridge, mate. You really don't like football." He's still on about football? "No." I shook my head, to emphasize the point. "Right. Well, I am frozen. So, can we just go?" The redhead announced. "Yeah." The two turned around, and started walking.

Maddy turned to me. "You might want to stay here and warm up. It's a long walk back to Wales." "I'm not even Wel-" And then I saw her smile. She was teasing me. "Oh."

* * *

I finally learned her friends names. The girl was Shannon, and the boy was Tom. We arrived at Bernie's and ordered hot chocolate.

"Here's to the late, great, Bradlington High Photography Club. It was fun while it lasted, yeah?" Tom said, raising his mug in tribute. We all murmured our agreement, and then the bell over the door chimed.

The three vapid girls from school came over to our table. The blue one in the middle said, "We have a proposition for you." Maddy looked incredulous, "You have a proposition for us?", making sure that we all heard correctly. "It's a competition," she announced, "It'll cost too much to get our photos done professionally." The pink one added, "And we need a phorotolio.""Portfolio," the orange one corrected. "Both." "So, it you take our photos, we'll join your photography club, and everybody wins." At the distrusting looks shared among the three friends, the blue one sneered, "Were not actually going anywhere near your monkey darkroom. We'll just put our names down so Jefferies keeps it open. Do I have a deal?" Maddy looked at her friends, and seeing their agreement, and amusement, stood up, and spat into her hand to seal the deal. The three girls looked horrified. "Please!" "Ew!"

The orange one asked if I was joining. I had no idea how to respond appropriately. I was slightly scared by their interest in me. The only thing I wanted to do was run, fast, and far away from them as possible, but I couldn't, so I looked to Maddy and her friends. Tom barely hid a laugh, as did Shannon. I settled for the always reliable monosyllabic answer: "No." And with that, I returned to my drink. Maddy laughed.

Soon after finishing our drinks, we decided to part ways, Maddy heading of with her friends, and I had just started walking away from Bernie's, when I heard Maddy call out.

"Rhydian, I'll walk home with you." As she ran to catch up, I kept walking. When she was at my side, I told her, "I never said I was staying." "That's a pity. You got a fan club." I could tell from her voice she was teasing me, again. She gestured back to Bernie's, where I could hear the three girls talking about me. It was flattering and scary. "If that doesn't scare you off, nothing will." She nudged me, and then started walking.

After walking a little while, we found ourselves in the woods. I was walking, thinking about school, and the Vaughns, and the girl walking beside me. "So, if you're not from Wales, how did you get named Rhydian?" I could tell that the rest of this conversation was going to be about me, so I kept my eyes on the ground, pointedly ignoring her eyes. After a moment or two of silence, I answered her. "My mom was Welsh, I think." I don't know her name, but either her, or my father, or both were Welsh, and my names were Welsh. "How long were you in foster care?" "Since I was two." "And nobody knows what you are?" I just shook my head. "So, what did you do for the full moon last night?" This time I looked at her, trying to make a joke to make it not so bad. "I couldn't stay in my bedroom, now, could I?" I sighed, and then gave a better answer. "I climbed out my window." "So it was your paw print that Shannon found." Her tone was pleased at finding a possible answer. I didn't really know, so I just shrugged. "Was it your first Change?" I took a deep breath, looked at her, and answer her question, "Second." I returned to staring at the ground. I knew what was coming next. I figured I had best spare her the awkward questions. "My first got my chucked out of my last foster home." "What happened." "Don't know. I went to bed and woke up in a ditch. Turns out I had trashed my bedroom so they kicked me out." Remembering what had happened made me happy they were out when I had changed, and upset that I had been removed, again. They weren't bad people, just kind of nosy, strict, and in-your-business, which I hadn't appreciated. "That must have been hard." And I'm done, new topic.

"Anyway, what about you?" When she turned to look at me, I clarified. "I mean, the full moons must be epic out here."

"Well... I haven't started transforming yet." She sounded nervous. "So I know more about this stuff than you do?" We reached a creek, and Maddy climbed down to the bank. "Yeah, you're the expert. That's why you lost it with Jimi in front of 'alf the school." She gave me a sneer, "I didn't know that could happen. I thought werewolves only went hairy at the full moon." I was on the defensive, and I was sure she could tell.

"We feel the urge to change whenever we feel threatened or angry, too. Ye learn to control it, and you can transform whenever you want." She turned to face me, a grin on her face. "How do you know all this stuff?" She was amused by my ignorance, I could tell from her smile. "Me parents taught us." Who's 'us'? She crossed the creek, and climbed up some rocks. "You have parents like us?" "Yep. And it's Wolfblood, not werewolf. We're not monsters." And now she's scolding me. "The weird thing is, I don't even remember getting bitten." "Bitten?" She scoffed, and then started giggling. "You don't get bitten." I felt another flood of anger, and snapped at her, "Don't laugh at me!" She laughed again. "Sorry. It's just, you really do have a lot to learn." She turned, and started to climb the rocks. "Well, teach me then, smelly girl."

She gave me another sneer at the nickname, and shook her head, deciding that I wouldn't get her sidetracked. "You were born this way. You're normal." She sighed, and looked around, trying to find a better way to explain, I hoped, because what she said meant nothing to me. "Look around." I took in all the details of the trees and the water falling over the rocks, and the wind moving. "Everything you thought made you a freak, sight, hearing, speed, sense of smell, they're all completely normal for a Wolfblood." Everything that made me different, made me unwanted, was normal. The relief was staggering. It wasn't me that was wrong, it was the doctors and therapists.

"So, say I did stick around, uh, only for a bit, no promises." She started to smile, even before I finished talking. "You'd have a pack, at last. People to teach you." When she mentioned teaching, my mind went to boring lectures and essays, nothing fun at all. "Oh, no. No rules, no lectures. You can keep your group hugs in your big furry family. I'll do things my way," "Lone wolf, huh?" Maddy sounded amused, as if she didn't believe that I could be a lone wolf. "So the next time you loose control of your wolf self, what happens then?" Now that I know what to expect, I can control the transforming. "Well, uh, that'll be an interesting day, won't it?" I walked further along the creek, away from Maddy, but she moved ahead of me, again, and turned to face me, forcing me to stop.

"And one more thing." Maddy grabbed my shirt, yanking me towards her. "Don't you ever expect me to submit like that again. I only did it so you would calm down, so don't go around, forcing dominance on everyone." I forced her to release her grip of my shirt, angry again, and extremely confused, at her sudden mood swing from happy to angry, and by her words.

"What the hell are you talking about? Submit, dominance, what does that even mean?" At my words, she looked like she'd been slapped. "Urrg! Right. Not raised by Wolfbloods. Right." She released me, pacing furiously. Hopefully, she was thinking of a better way to explain this to me. "We act a lot like real wolves do, including the power structure. Wolves live in packs, and so do we. My pack consists of my parents, the Alpha's, and me, and possibly you, if my parents accept. Do you remember how you pushed Jimi down?" Remembering the fight, I nodded. "That was a show of dominance, how you pushed him down by the shoulders, wolves do that in the wild. It was a way to prove that you're the strongest wolf, the leader of the pack. In that case, you were defending yourself from an attack, a pre-emptive strike before they could defeat you." She took a deep breath, looked down at the ground briefly, and then looked me in the eye. "You know how I got down on one knee, and bowed my head in the Dark Room? I was submitting to you, saying that you were stronger than me, and I'm not! It was only to calm you down, and to keep you from destroying everything." By the time that she'd finished speaking, she'd gone from confident to angry to annoyed.

That had explained a little of what I wanted to know, but I could tell there was a lot to learn. "How do Wolfbloods differ from humans? I mean, I know some stuff, but nothing compared to you." Her face lit up with a smile at my complement. "We develop like wolves do, with nose, ears and eyes. Humans develop eyes, ears, nose. The sense of smell is the most important sense to a Wolfblood. You didn't smell me in greeting, so I know more about you than you do me. Just by catching your scent in the school, I could tell that you were a Wolfblood, male, a teenager, and new to the area." That's interesting.

"You smell like my parents because you've transformed, and I haven't. I'm basically at a seventy-five, twenty-five split between human and wolf, you're at fifty, fifty human to wolf split. I have better senses than humans do, and they'll get better after the change. Also, body language and touch are very important, as most of our communication as wolves is nonverbal. You can say a lot with just a few gestures."

"Maddy." I could feel a headache coming on from all the new information. "What?" She had a confused look on her face, as if she had no idea why I said her name. "I thought I said no lectures." "Oh."


	2. Peculiar Happenings

**I do not own Wolfblood, Debbie Moon and the other writers do.**

 **Maddy's dialect: My is me; me, us; us, we; we, our, and our, oor. I won't use it all the time, because Maddy doesn't, but I'll try to keep it consistent.**

Peculiar Happenings

Today isn't going to be a good day, I could feel it. I was tired, having gotten only six hours of sleep last night, and about the same for the rest of the week. I kept having nightmares, waking up too early and at sudden noises, and not being able to fall asleep, starting a little before my first Change.

Running to school gave me a chance to clear my head, and to explore a little of the woods in Stoneybridge. When I arrived at school, I saw all of the pictures that Shannon had put up. Knowing that the memory card would be in the darkroom I drifted through my homeroom, annoyed that it was Monday, and glad I had art class today.

In art, we were working on large landscapes in pairs, and I was working with Maddy. As soon as I sat down and started painting, using a rather nice color of green, she whispered to me,"I know you took it." "Yeah." I looked up at the sound of her voice, and then returned my attention to my work. "You can thank me later." "You made Shannon look like a total idiot." I could hear the scorn in her voice, but how her friend felt was of no concern to me. "Tough." "If you weren't wolfing out in the woods, Shannon wouldn't have gotten a picture in the first place." Her voice raised and she had the gall to angry at me, when I hadn't done anything. "It wasn't me." I tried to push down my anger, and make her see sense. "Then who was it?", her tone mocking. "It wasn't me! I'm always guilty until proven innocent, aren't I?" I was indignant, there was no proof that I had been there, and she wasn't going to believe me.

"A wolf pack has't been sighted in Stoneybridge in years. You come along, and suddenly Shannon's got a picture. Come on." Her tone was still mocking. The look she gave me was just as disbelieving. There were only three wolves in Stoneybridge, me, and her parents, and I wasn't the one that got caught on camera. "It couldn't be one of your parents?" "They don't wolf out in public." She pointed to me, reminding me that I Changed when we first met. I had only did that once! I turned away from her, in disbelief. She is so stubborn! "You took that memory card to cover your own back." She pointed at me with her paintbrush. "I took it to protect us. If you'd rather protect your idiot friend's reputation, then go ahead." I pulled the card out of my shirt pocket, slapped it down, and sat back, still angry at her lack of trust in me. For the rest of the class, I was busy planning how to prove to Maddy that it wasn't me in the photo.

I had to find out who the other wolf was, and prove to Maddy that it wasn't me. After I made my way into the woods, I searched for Shannon's scent, and followed it to the fallen tree where she had taken the picture.

When I reached the tree, I noticed a mark on the tree trunk. Crouching down to get a better look, and finding a scent I didn't recognize, I started to hear a crying noise from the other side of the tree. I climbed over the tree, and found Shannon, sitting against the tree trunk. What should I do? I don't know how to help crying girls. I tried to smile. "Hay fever?" I started walking towards her. "You're looking for the monster, I suppose?" Reaching Shannon, l braced myself against a tree branch. "Rhydian, just leave it, ok?" Hearing that, I sat down next to her. "Why are you so interested in it, then?" She was still crying, but quietly.

"I was seven and I was on this camping trip with the Brownies, not far from here. We'd all gone to bed for the night, but I couldn't sleep. There were sounds of things outside. Probably badgers and stuff. But you know how your imagination plays tricks. I was playing shadow monsters. Then there was a real shadow on the outside. So I turned off my torch and it came closer. It was right over us. I thought it was just one of my friends, and so I unzipped the tent to have a look. And there it was, this monstrous face, hairy, with- with these yellow eyes." Yellow eyes? Sounds like a Wolfblood. "I screamed so loudly it woke up the whole camp."

Knowing her story was over, I asked, "So what do you think it was?" "I don't know. But when I got back to school, everyone had heard. They started making fun of me. I was even sent to a child psychologist." "What for?" That made no sense to me. Kids only get sent to psychologists if they clearly have a problem. "I wouldn't shut up about what I'd seen." She sighed, sounding annoyed. "Everyone just said I was doing it for attention." "It's not nice to be accused of lying, is it?" "Exactly." "You know, chocolate helps hay fever." I pulled out a bar of vegan chocolate, and handed it to her. "You sure you don't want it?" "Naw, I'm good." Vegan chocolate is an acquired taste, and I don't like chocolate that much, anyway. "Vegan chocolate?" She sounded confused, not understanding how chocolate could be vegan. "My foster parents are vegetarians." I patted her on the shoulder, and told her "Enjoy." My work was done.

* * *

I was starving. I'd hardly eaten any meat in two weeks. Why do the Vaughns have to be vegetarians? Meat was just about the only thing I could think about, and the only thing to eat at the Vaughns were fruits, vegetables, and tofu. I hope there's meat on the menu today. Food at school had some meat, at least, which made it better than the food at the Vaughns.

I was in the middle of the food line, and I couldn't smell anything from -"Hi." "What?" I didn't hear Maddy come up. "I'm really sorry about the memory card. You were right to have taken it." "Yeah. Totally." I wasn't really paying any attention to what Maddy had been saying after that, I was too busy trying to figure out how to get as much meat as I can, as soon as possible. "Can you... we should just get it out of the way." "Out of the way, yeah." The line is finally moving. I still couldn't smell any meat. I could only smell vegetables. I could vaguely hear Maddy talking. To show I wasn't ignoring her, I said "Cool.", thinking that whatever she had been saying sounded better than a meatless existence. "You're not even listening..." She sounded angry. As soon as she finished talking, I desperately asked "Sorry, do you know what's on the menu?" "Uh, I think Wednesday's veggie day." Urgh! No meat for breakfast, or lunch today! Great. I'm going to die of starvation at this rate. I sighed, mourning the lack of meat for lunch. "Meat." My head snapped towards her, she sounded triumphant, but I was focused on the meat. "Where?" I demanded. "You got cravings." She almost sounded amused. "They're vegetarians, Maddy." I sounded mournful, and I was, mourning the lack of meat to eat. "My foster parents, they're vegetarians." I looked down, still sad for the lack of meat.

"Well," She placed her hand on my shoulder, in what I assumed to be a show of support. "Wednesday is hog roast night. You know, where you get a whole pig and roast it, with all the trimmings." She sounded happy, like she was looking forward to eating it. "A whole pig?" I couldn't believe it, but it sounded amazing. "Fancy it?" She gave me a grin, and it seemed like she already knew my answer. "Yeah." "Cool." We were finally at the front of the line, and there was nothing but vegetables. I couldn't stand the sight. "I can't look at another vegetable." I couldn't take it, and left for the art room, trying to think of what my next sketch should be, and not how much I wanted some meat.

* * *

I made my way to Maddy's house in good time, telling the Vaughns that I was going over to a friends' house for dinner. I knocked on the door, and it was opened by a friendly-looking man, who I assumed was Maddy's dad, and he was holding a dish of some sort of meat. "Rhydian, I'm Daniel." I shook his hand. "Come on in." I went in inside, to the kitchen, with Daniel following me. Maddy was standing next to the table, and Mrs. Smith next to the stove. "Pleased to, uh, meat you." Daniel continued, making a pun, raising the dish of meat in his hand. Maddy's mum, whose name was Emma, started laughing, and Maddy looked like she wanted to run, or go to the woods and never come out.

We all sat down to eat, and I immediately dug in. I was really hungry, and loaded my plate with food, but not so much as to leave leftovers. "Help yourself mate. Have as much as you like." Daniel told me, and then threw a piece of ham past me, which I easily caught, and started to eat it. Everyone laughed.

"It's got to be cool having a family you can be yourself around." I was mainly talking to Maddy, but she looked to her mum. "You're more than welcome anytime you want. And if you've got any questions anything, just ask." I continued to eat, but then a question occurred to me. I Changed here once, and hadn't run into any of their scent, so where did the Change? "On the full moon, do you transform in the house, in here?" "No, we have a secure room, in the cellar." Daniel made a gesture towards the hall, where, I assumed the cellar was. "The cellar?" Daniel rose from his seat, and we all got up and followed him.

I was led into a hallway, and down a set of stairs, where a large red metal door resided. Daniel opened the door, and we all entered an underground room. Behind the door was a barred gate. The support beam was severely damaged, by claw marks and bites, and the furniture was in bad condition, with the fabric ripped and the stuffing coming out. There were bushes and leaves placed in part of the room, held up by a small rock wall, and a light that reminded me of the full moon.

"You like it? We call it the den. It's got everything a wolf desires, and it's safe for us, and, well, for everybody else. It's all about responsibility." Maddy went over to the rock wall, and sat down, most likely having heard this lecture before. "But don't you ever just want to run free? Isn't that what being a Wolfblood's about?" Daniel looked like he was about to speak, but Emma quickly started talking. "No, being a Wolfblood is not just about giving in to our primal desires. It's about being a responsible part of a wider community." "Yeah, we got a rich heritage and culture." Daniel moved over to the bookshelf, and pulled out an old book. "And we got books here you won't find in the school library. It's true that Rome was founded by the Wolfbloods Romulus and Remus. And Genghis Khan's tribe weren't called the wolves for nothing." He sounded very enthusiastic, I think he enjoyed having someone who would listen to the hidden history of Wolfbloods.

"Yeah, but most of us agree that it's better to tame our instincts." Emma quickly interjected, giving Daniel a sharp look."Most of us?" Maddy sounded accusing, rose from her seated position, and then took a step towards her mum, pressing her for further information "Yeah, Ah just meant that-" Emma hastily tried to correct her earlier statement. "No, ye said most of us." Maddy continued to move towards where we were, coming to a stop next to me. "Ye always taught us that we all kept oorselves locked away." "Maybe we should-" Daniel started to talk, but Emma interrupted, "She's not auld enough." "Auld enough for what?" Maddy demanded angrily, looking to both her parents.

Most of us agree to tame their instincts, that must mean that other wolfbloods don't. "There are other Wolfbloods that don't lock themselves away, aren't there." I spoke slowly, putting together the pieces, learning that there were wild wolfbloods, Maddy knew nothing about them, and it was probably one of them that Shannon saw.

"Is that true?" Maddy sounded shaken, but still pressing for answers, wanting to know the truth. I put my hands in my jacket pockets, as a way to do something to concentrate on, rather than the argument that was brewing. "We were going to tell you after you transformed." Emma admitted, and Daniel quickly added, "We didn't want to scare you." "Scare us?" Maddy sounded angry and disbelieving, insulted that her parents would think that she would be scared of wild wolfbloods. "There are other Wolfbloods who, well, they don't quite share the same values as us." Emma tried to explain the differences between them and the others, looking to Daniel to help her explain. "Wild Wolfbloods." he admitted, sounding disappointed at the division between the Wolfbloods. "But their very rare." Emma hurriedly added, "And most of us agree that it's better to be a useful part of society instead of-" Maddy was still looking at her parents, shocked at the flood of new, unknown information that her parents were suddenly revealing. I was just listening in disbelief. There were other Wolfbloods, who didn't live like the Smith's, and Maddy hadn't known. "Instead of what?" She demanded, interrupted her mum. "Instead of hating humans, and hating us." Daniel sounded ashamed, of the Wolfbloods that went against what they believed. "They're dangerous."

"It really wasn't you in the photo." Maddy turned to me, seeking a confirmation to what she had just learned. "I told you it wasn't." If it wasn't me, then who was the Wolfblood that Shannon saw? "Shannon and Tom are out there." And with that, Maddy turned away from her parents, and headed towards the door. I followed her up to the main floor, with her parents right behind me. Maddy was digging through her bag for something. "Look, Shannon took it the other day." She showed her parents the picture that Shannon had printed out. "I thought it was Rhydian, 'cause I didn't know about wild Wolfbloods." She was still angry at her parents, probably about the secret they kept. "Where did they go?" Daniel asked, urgently. "To the woods, here." I pointed to the picture, thinking the answer was obvious. "Where is here?" The fallen tree is near that clump of underbrush, over the hill- "Uh, I can't explain, but I can find it." Moving towards the door, I was cut off by Emma. "No, you two stay here." Emma and Daniel moved to the door, grabbing their coats as they went. "We're coming with you." Maddy tried to follow them, but was cut off by Emma. "You'll be staying right here. If there'a a wild Wolfblood out there, we'll sniff it out." They hurried outside and got in their car, with Maddy and me following them outside, and we watched them drive off.

"Well, this is ridiculous. I know where they are." I was frustrated that I wasn't allowed to show them where the tree was, it would have taken less time to find it. "Mam and dad know what they're doing." She didn't sound entirely confident, so I gave a scoff, and asked, "What, in their car?" They can't catch a scent in the car. I decided to give Maddy one more push. "If that wolf's out there, he's using his senses, and he's going to hunt down Shannon and Tom. We can get there first." Looking like she would regret what she was about to say she told me "You're right." As I moved to go find Tom and Shannon, Maddy stopped me from moving. "No wolfing out. Shannon's got a camera." Nodding to show her I understood, I started to run, with Maddy only a few steps behind me.

* * *

Running through the woods shouldn't have felt exhilarating, but with Maddy only a few steps behind me, and running with her at night made it difficult not to enjoy it.

When we found Shannon and Tom, near the tree, with their torches on, trying to see out into the mist, and they weren't alone. Jimi and his friends were with them, and everyone was all huddled together. We were running very fast, making the sudden stop rather awkward. Maddy, and everyone else screamed. "Are you okay?" Maddy asked Shannon, sounding worried. Tom took a step forward, responding with a sarcastic "Well, we would be, if you wasn't jumping oot at us." "What are you doing here?" Maddy asked Jimi, with a disgusted look on her face. Before he could answer, Shannon asked Maddy, "What are you doing here? I thought you had dinner with your parents?" "You had dinner with Rhydian, on a date?" Ton sounded confused, and I wasn't sure if it was the idea of Maddy on a date, or if it was Maddy on a date with me that caused the confusion. Jimi and his friends started to make catcalls, and Maddy said to them rather pointedly, "Shut up. He's me cousin." Before I could say anything in response to Maddy's comment. Shannon gasped.

"Guys, guys." She sounded panicked, was backing up, towards the group. Jimi asked nervously, "What was that?", to which Shannon firmly replied, "It's the monster.", and started taking pictures, hoping to finally catch her monster on film. Hearing Shannon, I decided to circle around the group and come up behind the Wild Wolfblood. I had moved off to the side when I heard the growling coming from the where I had just left. "Huh?" Jimi had turned around to find out where the growling was coming from, and shouted, "That's the monster!" Everyone turned their torches toward the wolf, who was just continuing to move closer. I took that moment to Change, and continued to circle the group.

"Everyone get behind me!" Tom called out to the group, trying to protect everyone, and most moved to get behind him. "Mads, Mads!" Maddy was taking slow steps towards the wolf, completely ignoring Tom's frantic calling of her name. The wolf gave a snarl. At his threat to Maddy, I lost it, rushing in from the side and knocking him over. Maddy turned and screamed for the group to run, and Maddy ran with them, leaving me to continue to block the wolf's advances towards the group. He gave a howl, assuming his victory, and I growled at him in response, warning him to not get cocky. I kept my body low in preparation to attack him, my legs tense in preparation to move in any direction. I was so focused on the other wolf, I had barely noticed when Maddy came back, camera in hand.

"Rhydian!" Her scream on my name distracted the wolf, making him pause and look at her. I took a chance, and leaped at him, trying to end the fight quickly, but he rolled onto his back, and used his paws to catapult me off of him, throwing me into the rock. Winded from the blow, I couldn't get air back into my lungs, and could only struggle as he moved closer to me. "Leave him alone!" At Maddy's yell, his attention turned from me and onto Maddy. Seeing her eyes turn yellow, he started moving towards her, and I finally got my breath back, and moved towards Maddy's side, acting as a guard for her flank. The wolf looked between the two of us, and growled, angry at being outnumbered in a fight that he was sure that he would win. As he prepared to leap, Maddy started taking pictures, using the flash to blind him. I gave another growl, and he turned and ran.

Now that the fight was over, I could feel pain in my shoulders, back and ribs. I collapsed next to Maddy, panting from the exertion. I Changed back to human, and Maddy helped me to move, and we sat together against a nearby tree. Maddy was looking at the pictures that she had taken. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you." She said, softly, looking up at me. "I don't blame you." And the truth was, I did. I could understand that, as a newcomer, she didn't trust me, like she did her parents. "We didn't even know about the Wild Wolfbloods." Turning back to the camera, she continued to go through the pictures. Hearing her mutter, "No." to herself, sparked my curiosity. I turned to get a better look at the pictures on the camera, and asked, "What's that?", not being able to clearly see the picture. "It's something.", she replied, still focused on the camera. "You can't tell it's a wolf." I knew I was being obvious, but it was the best I could do at the time. Maddy turned towards me and smiled, saying, "We should leave something for Shannon." "Yeah." Shannon could at least get a picture, after everything that had happened tonight.

"Anyway, that's my best side." She gave a laugh, and turned to look at me again, seeing the humor of my comment. "Where are the others?" I was sure that we would have seen them by now. Maddy explained, absently, still looking at the pictures, "Tom hurt his ankle. He's with Shannon. You know Jimi, every man for himself." "He's such a wuss." I gave a scoff, disliking his lack of courage. "Yeah." I could hear the smile in her voice. "Here he is." She got up, and started to leave. "I'll just find Tom and Shannon by myself then, shall I? Yeah. Good."

Great. Getting up is going to hurt. Bracing my legs against the ground, I brought myself to standing, using my arms and the tree for leverage. Ignoring the pain, I started walking towards the tree where I last saw Shannon and Tom. I found them sitting next to the fallen tree, with Maddy nowhere in sight. "Maddy's not here, is she?" Tom and Shannon both shook their heads, confirming what I had thought. I reached for Tom, helping him to walk, and let him use me as a crutch. We started walking back towards town.

"So what do you think it was? It had to be the beast, right?" Shannon sounded excited. Trying to think of something to get Shannon's mind off of the beast, I blurted out the first thing that came into my mind. "Probably... foxes. I mean, have you ever seen foxes fight? They really go for it, those foxes." Maddy ran up in front of us, forcing us to stop. "Hi, you guys." She was panting, out of breath from the running, most likely. "Well, where have you been?" That wolf is still out there, somewhere, and it knows you can't Change. "Looking for you guys." It's confusing, sometimes she's an amazing liar, other times, not so much. She moved to join the group, walking in between Tom and Shannon.

"Anyway, what I saw was bigger than a fox. And there's definitely something out there." There was a rumbling sound, and it was getting louder. "What was that?" The glare of the headlights were blinding, but I knew that it was the Smith's car. They pulled to a stop in front of us. and got out of the vehicle.

"Is everyone alright?" Emma ran forward, taking a look at all of us, searching for injuries. "What are you doing here?" Daniel sounded worried, and I knew I would have to start groveling if I wanted a place in the pack. "What are you doing here?" Shannon sounded confused, probably not expecting to see Maddy's parents in the forest at this time of night. "Uh, we..." Daniel looked to Emma, and she quickly said, "We were just going for a dive." "Yeah, because Emma likes bird watching." "Dan likes star cruising." They both looked at each other, embarrassed at the horrible lie they just told. "Tom's hurt his ankle." Maddy said, pointedly, trying to move the attention off of her parent's mistake. "Right. Let's get him back to the house." Emma gave a nod towards the car.

"Here we go." Daniel took hold of Tom's right arm, and we helped him get into the car. Maddy got in after Tom, and sat down next to him. "You all right?" I heard her ask Tom. "Yeah, just a bit freaked out, I guess." I circled around the car, planning on sitting next to Maddy, when I was stopped by the Alpha female. "What's this here? Do you bring my daughter out here?" I looked her in the eyes, but before I could tell her that I hadn't brought Maddy anywhere, Dan called out to us both, "Come on, you two, in you go." It was only then I dropped my gaze and got into the car.

* * *

The ride back to the Smiths was mostly quiet, only Shannon talking about going through the pictures, looking for the beast. As soon as we got to our destination, we all went up to Maddy's room. Shannon sat at Maddy's desk. Tom and Maddy sat on the bed.

"No. No. No." Shannon was going through the pictures that were taken tonight, muttering dismissals as she found none of them good enough to keep. Tom and Maddy were drinking hot chocolate, and I was trying to clean out the cut on my forehead. "No. No." Shannon sighed. "Ah, what's that?" Tom moved quickly to get a better look at the picture on the screen. "Oh. No, it's just a badger." "I know it's out there." Shannon sighed. Maddy looked at me, and then nodded towards Shannon and Tom. I moved closer to the desk and looked at the pictures as Shannon went through them. "I'll find it one day." Maddy got up from her seat and went through a couple more pictures. "What about that one, Shan?" Shannon sighed, "It's not very clear." "Yeah, but you can still see something, though." Maddy argued. "Yeah, you could definitely use it a poster, Shannon." Trying to sound encouraging, and trying to hide my humor, as I knew an awesome picture was coming up. "Yeah." Maddy was still trying to encourage Shannon. "No, I'm done with posters." Maddy was almost laughing, "Are ye sure you're done with posters?" And then pulled up a picture that she had taken of Jimi and his friends. We all laughed, and I thought of the boy's reactions to that picture, and it only made it funnier.

Shannon and Tom left soon after the picture was found, Emma driving them home to save them from having to walk home in the dark. Maddy and I went back upstairs to her room. "Well, that was an adventure." I mused out loud, referring to my fight with the Wild Wolfblood. "Hey, Maddy, do you know why your mum doesn't like me?" I sat down in the chair that I was in earlier, trying to avoid any unnecessary pain. I didn't accomplish it, moving more just word my sore muscles harder, and the pain made me hiss. I'd never gotten into a fight as a wolf before. Considering that, I'd thought I done pretty well.

She sat down on her bed, and gestured for me to come over next to her. I went to sit down beside her, leaning back and putting my weight on my hands. "Simply put, you're a threat." This made no sense to me. I sat up straight. I know I'm angry, but I wasn't a threat to most people, just the idiot boys my age that didn't know how to shut up. "How am I a threat? How can I convince her that I'm not?" Maddy let out a humorless laugh. "You'll always be a threat, in a lot of different ways." She leaned towards me, raising a finger for each of her arguments. "You're a threat because you're new, and in our territory. We don't know you. You're taking up resources that could go to us. You're also male, dominant, and a teenager. You're a threat because you haven't joined our pack. You'd be a threat if you had. The only way for you to not be a threat is if you were defanged, declawed, castrated, and dead." I winced at the thought. "Wow. Wait, why would I be a threat, no matter what? That doesn't make any sense. You make it sound like my very existence is a threat."

Maddy nodded,"In a way, it is. You could take over our territory, and drive us out. You could take over the pack, becoming the Alpha, making my parents the Betas. The fact that you're a Wolfblood teenage male doesn't help matters, because in general, they are not known for good decision making skills. It's really just Mam that worries, Dad doesn't think that you will be a threat, the fact that you might join our pack is good enough for him." Taking all of this in, I tried to think of ways to get on Emma's good side. "Is there anything I can do to help your mum start trusting me?"

Maddy thought for a moment, and then answered firmly. "Don't challenge her, and listen to what she says. Don't hold eye contact for too long, it's a challenge." Crap. This was not good. I leaned forward and put my head in my hands. "Urg. I've already challenged her, then. How long do I have, before I need to start running?" "I've told Mam that you don't know anything about Wolfbloods. You may not agree with what she says, but let her speak first, and don't interrupt. I can interrupt, but that's because she's my mam, but I'll still get in trouble. With you, I'm not sure what Mam would do. You're not her son, you aren't pack, but she's still the Alpha."

I couldn't help but yawning. Now that the adrenaline had faded completely, I had begun to realize how tired I was. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep, only to be abruptly woken up when Maddy touched my shoulder. I quickly sat up, and moved away from her, out of reach. "Sorry." I wasn't sure if I was apologizing for falling asleep, or my odd reaction to being woken up.

"How much sleep did you get last night? She sounded disapproving and concerned, and I couldn't help but answer. "About six hours. It was pretty nice, actually. Some nights I get two hours of sleep."

* * *

I was standing at the entrance of school, with Maddy, Shannon and Tom, waiting for school to start and for Jimi to arrive. We couldn't help but laugh, remembering the posters that Shannon had made, and placed all over at school. Jimi and his two tag-a-longs walked into school, seeing everyone stare at them, and laugh. "What are you looking at, losers." Jimi gave a scowl, trying to stop everyone from laughing, but it wasn't working. Everyone who saw the posters laughed as Jimi and his friends walked by. We started to go to Mr. Jefferies class, when we saw Jimi pull down the picture. "Crybabies of the moors?" One boy said, "I didn't cry, Sam did though." Sam refuted his remark, "I didn't, Jimi did though."


	3. Pack Bonds

**I do not own Wolfblood, Debbie Moon and the other writers do.**

 **Maddy's dialect: My is me; me, us; us, we; we, our, and our, oor. I won't use it all the time, because Maddy doesn't, but I'll try to keep it consistent.**

Pack Bonds

I hate this, I really fucking hate this. _The 21st Century Family Art Show_? This is going to be horrible. Should I put up my real drawing, or just bullshit something?

I walked towards my display, still trying to decide what I should do. I walked past the three K's, and they decided to ambush me. "Let's see your drawing, Rhydian." "Yeah, I bet it's brilliant." Yeah, it's brilliant, in its simplicity. I used pencil on a 9x12 sheet of paper. The subject matter, on the other hand, not so much. What can a person without a family draw? So, I drew what it was like, when they left me.

I hung up my picture, and turned to smile at two of the three K's, the orange one, and the pink one. They looked horrified, and I could feel my smile fall. "What's that got to do with family?" For me, everything. "That's just spooky." Not what I was going for, but, considering her lack of smarts, I took what I could get. "And weird." I'll go with my second option, then.

Feeling their eyes on me, I turned my picture over, and started hastily making stick figures of what a family should look like. "Is that normal enough for you?" I managed to say, in a relatively normal tone, and moved away from drawing, only to be stopped by Maddy, coming up behind me, and pulling on my arm. I tensed, turned, and saw Maddy, looking at me with pity... or was it sadness, in her eyes.

"You're not actually going to listen to them, are you?" Maddy demanded, angry, at me, or what I was doing, I wasn't sure, but the look that she gave me just heightened my anger. "Why? You do." I nodded towards her display, showing herself, and her parents, when she looked confused at my statement. She turned to look at it, and I continued to speak. "Pretending to be something you're not. You're just like them, pretty and fake." And with that, I turned around, and walked away. I started to run, until it was time for the show to start, so I headed back to school, to see people's reactions to various pieces of artwork.

I made it outside, but I couldn't bring myself to enter, so I just stayed and watched everyone moving around. When Maddy and her family made her way towards mine, I couldn't look away. I saw her turn the paper over, revealing my original drawing, and saw her start talking with her parents. Somehow, she knew I was watching, and looked straight at me. I couldn't stand to see that look in her eyes, and left.

* * *

When I got to school, the art show was closed off, and people were crowded at the door, trying to see inside. "It was like spoww!" I heard Tom say something, but then Shannon asked "What happened?", and then started moving towards the door for a better look. "Oh, mum's jacket!" The pink girl pushed through the crowd, ripped the sign off the door, and went into the room. Tom, Shannon, Maddy and I followed."Who would do this?" Shannon asked, walking around the room, taking in all of the destruction. "Mum's gonna kill me." The pink girl whimpered, holding her mother's jacket.

"No one's supposed to be in here!" Mr. Jefferies called out to us all, angrily. When we all looked at him, he sighed, and quietly said, "Just don't touch anything." He walked further into the room, and Maddy turned towards him. "What happened. sir?" "Someone came back here Friday night, after the exhibition closed." He put his hands in his pockets, and looked around at the destruction. "What about security cameras?" Shannon questioned, looking directly at Mr. Jefferies, ignoring the overturned displays for the time being. Mr. Jefferies shook his head. "All we have is a glimpse of someone running away. At that speed, in the dark, it could have been anyone." Mr. Jefferies turned and left. I looked at Maddy, and she looked to me, already trying to figure out who the vandal could be.

* * *

After getting to our home room, everyone took their seats. I sat at a table in the middle, by myself. Maddy sat alone, on the left side of the room. Mr. Jefferies started lecturing the class on vandalism. "This school has a zero tolerance policy towards vandalism. The end of time Disco is canceled." "Sir!" "You can't do that!" "Unless the vandal is found." Jimi and his friend Liam were whispering to each other, but I wasn't listening. I knew that I would get blamed, it was only a matter of time, with my being new here, and my record. "So if any of you know anything, now's your chance to speak up." Their whispering was getting louder, and harder to ignore. Everyone was starting to look at me, blaming me. Jimi, and his friend, those two annoying girls, weren't their usually three of them, and Maddy.

I was standing at my locker, waiting for my next class to start. I could hear the three annoying girls chattering about something, but I didn't really care about that, but I could still hear what they were saying. One was complaining about her mum's jacket. I was thinking about how Maddy had looked at me earlier, blaming me for wrecking the art show. "Hey, leek boy." Jimi called out to me, and I couldn't not look to see what he wanted. "Is it true you smashed up the dark room on your first day?" I could tell that this wouldn't end well. "I knocked some stuff over. What do you care?" The pink girl of the three K's came over. "Where were you Friday night, Rhydian?" The other two came over, and I was trapped against the lockers. "It's none of your business." The orange one took a step forward, and continued to interrogate me. "If you're innocent, why not tell us where you were?" A lie sounded to be the best bet, because I had started running after leaving school, and had only made it back to the Vaughns at seven, barely in time for supper. Saying I'd been hanging out with Maddy sounded like the best bet, but before I could say anything, Jimi started talking. "Because I can tell you where he was, because I saw him skulking around the playground like a burglar." I saw Maddy enter the hallway, and start moving towards me. "Is this true?" "Why pretend to go home, and then come back?" I was beginning to loose my temper, and I could feel the Change coming on."Yeah, Welshie?" Maddy looked worried. "Unless - " I couldn't take it anymore, I broke out of the group, and started moving down the hallway.

Maddy hurried to catch up with me. "Hands.", she muttered anxiously, seeing how my veins were black. I look at my hands, and seeing how far the black had spread, I tucked my hands under my arms. "Why do you care?" I angrily questioned Maddy, and only looked at her briefly, seeing as how she was blaming me for the destruction, like everybody else. "You think it was me as well." "Was it?" She continued to walk beside me, pressing me for more information. I turned to her again, still walking down the hall, and I kept getting angrier."No, it wasn't." "Ok, well, I know you were there. I seen you at the window." At this point we had made it to the other end of the hall, and were about to enter the stairway. I was angry with Maddy, and everyone else, but I couldn't stop talking. "Yeah. I got here and I looked in, saw you and your parents." We opened the doors, and we stopped there. "Why didn't you come in?" Maddy was curious, and I could tell that she wouldn't rest until I gave her a good answer, so I gave her the best one that I had, currently. "Just- you know." I shrugged, not sure of the words to use. "I'm not ready for all that." I looked down to avoid seeing the pity in her gaze, but looked at her when she spoke again. "All right." All right what? "I believe you." What, really? Finally! There's still a problem, though. I'll still get blamed. "Thanks a bunch, not that it matters. I mean, I'm just going to get blamed for everything anyway." Maddy shook her head, confidently, informing me, "Not if we find the person that actually did it." And with that, we went to go get lunch.

* * *

Today was pizza day, which meant that the food was better than usual, but not all that good. I sat across from Maddy, and next to Shannon. Tom was sitting next to Maddy. We had barely started eating, when Tom started complaining, putting down his slice of pizza. "You call this pizza? My chemistry textbook tastes better than this." "You just got spoiled in Manchester." Shannon shook her head, concentrating on cutting her pizza. "What?" Tom looked, and sounded, confused, as if he had no idea what she was talking about. "The pizza place where you and your dad went." Tom began to smell stronger. "Oh, yeah. That was brilliant, you know?" Tom was lying. I was never sure how I knew, but he was lying. "Design your own pizza. Anything you want." Tom was still lying. Maddy was looking at me, oddly. I blanked my face, removing the frown that I was sure was there. "It was amazing."

"You're in trouble, Welshie." Sam walked up, to threaten me. "Is that right." I was ready to hit him, but decided that it was more trouble than I could afford, and didn't move. "You'll see." Sam turned and walked away. Maddy looked to watch him walk away, and then turned back to her food, in disgust. "You lot should definitely try it out. It was brilliant." "Whatever, Tom." Fed up with Tom's lies, I got up and left the table, heading towards the food disposal. Maddy followed me. "Look, Rhydian, I know you're angry, but don't take it out on Tom." Maddy said, chastising me, putting away her food tray. I shook my head, reaching my hand out towards her, to make my point. "Tom is a lot angrier than I am, right now. Just ask him."

Maddy shook her head, not understanding me. "What are you talking about?" I pointed towards Tom, "Look at him." I turned to look at her. She shook her head, still not understanding. "Really look at him. He's obviously lying about something." She shrugged, still not getting it. "It's a cold day today. Nobody else is sweating, so why is he?" I could tell that Maddy was going to get it, she just needed more pieces. "You should be able to pick out his heart beat. It's easily the fastest." She moved her hair away from her ear, to hear better. We started to walk back towards the table. "Are you sure this works?" She whispered to me. I nodded. "Normal humans get hunches when someone's lying. I've just learned to do it better." I needed to, in some of the homes. "When you have a new home and a new school every few weeks, it's really useful knowing who's telling the truth." I turned away from her, heading towards the tables again, turning back to Maddy when she spoke. "Yeah, except Tom wouldn't lie." I made my way over to Tom, "Sounds like you had the greatest weekend ever, mate." Tom looked uncertain, but nodded, "Yeah. Best weekend ever."

* * *

I could feel everyone looking at me. When I looked up to check, the pink idiot gave me a sneer. I turned back to my work, trying to concentrate. I heard the door open, and a pair of footsteps enter the room. I heard Mr. Jefferies call out, "Sorry, I need to speak to Rhydian Morris." I could tell, this was it. I was going to be suspended, or, more likely, expelled. Great. I got up, and followed Mr. Jefferies to his office.

He sat down at his desk, and I sat at the chair in front of his desk."You were seen hanging around on Friday Night." He looked very serious. "I came, but then I changed my mind." I knew this wasn't going to end well. "So Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn, they drove you here and back, did they?" I had best tell the truth, even if it sounds ridiculous."I made my own way." "You walked from Stoneybridge?" His tone was disbelieving, he leaned forward, hoping to get me to tell the truth. I could feel the heat start, running through my veins. "Don't call me a liar." I hate it. I don't lie. No one ever believes me. I saw my veins darkening, and quickly crossed my arms, hiding them from sight.

"Rhydian, calm down." Maddy whispered to me, somewhere from behind me. I automatically turned when I heard my name called. "Have control. Don't let on that you can hear me." I turned to face Mr. Jefferies again, hoping that he hadn't noticed my turn, and offering no explanation if he had. "What happened on Friday night was a serious matter, Rhydian." He still looked very serious, as if just by saying these things, he could get me to confess to whatever wrongdoing he'd thought I'd done. "A criminal matter." Yeah, I know. Vandalism is a crime, so stop wasting your time with me, and actually start searching for the guy that did it. "I didn't do it." Pointing out the obvious. I was still angry, and it showed. "Ya need ta calm down." I know, your advice is being extremly unhelpful. "Shut up." "I beg your pardon." Crap. Evidently I spoke louder than I thought. "You can't just accuse me." I was almost shouting. So much for Maddy's advice. "I am simply asking, young man, to explain where you were and why." I could feel my veins burn, anger spreading through my body, and I knew I had to calm down, or I would Change soon. "I'm trying to help you, Rhydian." He probably meant it, but he was wasting his time talking to me.

"Keep breathing. Stay calm." Maddy whispered to me, but then I heard a door slam, and someone climbing up the steps. Maddy had to move away to avoid getting caught. There was very little from holding me back now. Knowing Maddy was outside helped me to keep control and think.

"Just think about lying in a green field, in the sun" As soon as she said that, I couldn't help but laugh. "What exactly is so funny? You are trying my patience." Mr Jefferies threw down his pen. He was nearly shouting. Before I could respond, Maddy was back in front of the door, continuing to whisper to me. "Rhydian, are you okay?" She sounded worried, but her worry brought me back from my anger. I quickly checked my hands, and didn't see any black in my veins. "Last chance, Rhydian. Where were you on Friday?" Maddy started whispering again. "Okay, here's what you need to say. Me parents took ye home." I could hear her messing with her phone, and then whisper, "Mam? Could you..." I tuned out the rest of what Maddy was saying, focusing on my story to tell.

"I said, I came on my own. Maddy's parents gave me a lift home." Watching him turn to look up the Smith's phone number, I couldn't help but goad him. "Yeah, that's right. Call them. They'll back me up." He went and picked up the phone, dialing the Smith's number. "Hello, Mrs. Smith. It's Rhydian, I'm calling to confirm that you took him to the Vaughn's? You did take him home. Okay, thank you. There was an incident at school, a vandal destroyed the art show that the students worked on. Thank you again." Mr. Jefferies put the phone down, and put his elbows on his desk, lacing his fingers together. "It seems you were telling the truth." Now that my part was over, I started listening to Maddy, still talking to her mum. "Yeah. Sorry, mam. Thanks." Now that I was out of trouble, I could hear Maddy go down the stairs.

* * *

After I got out of Mr. Jefferies office, I followed Maddy to the dark room. Maddy went to sit at the table, and I went to lean against the sinks. "Think about lying in a green field?" I couldn't keep my amusement out of my voice. "How lame is that?" Maddy shook her head, "It worked, didn't it?", her voice held annoyance. I guess I shouldn't have called her advice lame, she had been trying to help. "Yeah." "Well, now Jefferies knows it wasn't me, it's not a problem."I shrugged my shoulders. I was satisfied. For the first time, I didn't get blamed for trouble. "Actually, it is." She looked worried, but I didn't see what the problem was. Maddy hesitated, and then spoke quickly, wanting to get it out. "Tom was the last to leave the building on Friday." Tom was the vandal? It made no sense. "Tom?" I was confused, had I misheard what Maddy said? Why would Tom destroy the art show? "His marvelous weekend in Manchester never happened. His dad didn't show up." Ah. "I told you he was lying." I was pleased to have been correct, but found it odd that he would lie about his weekend. "And his artwork was the worst damaged, photos of him and his dad." She sounded sad, and I hoped that Tom wasn't the vandal, for Maddy's sake. "So talk to him." It was the only thing that I could think of that would help, and cheer her up. "Better coming from you than someone else." Maddy looked a little more hopeful, and stood up, and muttered a quiet, "Yeah, thanks." She gave me a smile, and then left the darkroom, going back to class.

I waited for a few seconds, and then followed behind her, so whatever cover story she gave to explain her absence from class would hold. As I neared the classroom, the door had closed behind Maddy. I heard Jimi call out to Maddy, mocking me, "Couldn't save leek boy this time, could you?" "I didn't need to. He didn't do it." I could hear the satisfaction in her voice, and decided it was time for my big entrance. I walked in, gave a smile and a nod to Jimi, patted Liam on the shoulder, and took my seat next to Maddy. As soon as I sat down, Shannon exclaimed, "Ultraviolet!", and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. She mouthed 'sorry' to the room, and then leaned forward, closer to the group. "Can you remember Kara's ultraviolet painting? The ink was spilled everywhere." Where is she going with this? "The vandal must have trodden in it." "So they won't have washed it off?" "Because they don't know it's there." There was just on flaw in Shannon's plan. "How are you going to check everybody's shoes." Shannon smiled triumphantly, "I have a plan!"

After class was over, Shannon got a black light and starting looking at people's shoes as they passed her. I was watching from the end of the hallway, with Maddy. I was trying to think of a way to help Maddy with Tom. "Are you just going to confront him?" Maddy turned towards me. "I don't have any choice." She started walking backwards, "If she gets anywhere near him with that UV light -" Tom came over, asking, "Any luck?" Maddy turned towards him, muttering, "We need to talk about Friday. What really happened." Tom looked confused, as if he had no idea what she was talking about. "Huh?" Maddy sounded sad, desperate to be proven wrong. "I know you were the last to leave school." Tom's voice was incredulous, "You really think that I did it to other people's work. I wouldn't -" Maddy interrupted defensively. "I'm just trying to help you!" She stared at her in disbelief, and then shouldered past her, getting the black-light from Shannon. "If you really think it's me, check it yourself." He offered it to her. Maddy stood there, looking at Tom. She turned to glance at me, but I didn't know how to respond, so I kept quiet. Maddy took the black-light, and checked Tom's trainers, and found nothing. "Thanks, Mads." Tom's voice was scornful, and he pulled away from Maddy. "Some friend you are." Maddy moved to lean against the wall. Tom went towards the exit. "Maddy?" I didn't know how to help, so I stood next to Shannon and waited. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long. She inhaled deeply, and stood up. "Rhydian, will you help Shannon find the real vandal? I'm going to go after Tom, and talk to him."

After fifteen minutes of looking at people's shoes, Shannon sighed. "Well, that can't be everyone." She got up from her crouched position. "I never saw Kay and her mates, or Ryan Boswell." "We're bound to have missed people." I was tired of searching. "Let's try again tomorrow." Shannon sighed, pushing her hair into place. "I'll take this back." "I'll be in the Darkroom. I'll come to the front of the building when I'm finished." I took the black-light from Shannon and climbed the stairs. I turned to the hallway, amusing myself with the black-light. I noticed something green out of the corner of my eye. Looking up, I saw that a pair of patent leather shoes, hanging over a locker door, glowing green. A hand grabbed them, putting the in the locker, and then the door swung shut to reveal Jimi.

I dropped my raised hand to my side, staring at Jimi. He was the one who accused me, when he was the real vandal. "Push off, Leek boy." He moved around me, probably trying to leave school. If I ran fast enough, I could cut him off, stop him in this hallway. I burst through the green doors. Jimi glanced behind him, to where I had been a few minutes ago. He was probably wondering how I got there so fast, but I was too angry to bother. "I want to know why you did it!" Stunts like this would get me moved, and this is the first place I could imagine staying at. I didn't want to be forced away because of something that someone else did.

"Get lost!"Jimi scowled and turned away. As soon as he turned I started running. It was nice to be able to run, letting go of my limits, to protect me and mine. I turned to lean against the wall, and wait for Jimi to turn the corner, playing with the black-light. I was enjoying this game. He turned and started running, going towards the entrance of the school. I was faster, and headed for the roof. He made it to the first floor, and was almost out of the building. I waited until he was under the awning, and jumped to the ground.

I took a step forward, and was pleased when he took a step back. "Did you do all that damage just to get me into trouble?" "No." He was telling the truth. I heard a car pull up, and could smell someone kind of like Jimi. I pushed him lightly, making him turn. "You've had it in for me ever since I arrived." I pointed at him, still moving towards him, causing him to keep moving backwards. He didn't like the attention that I got from people, being the new guy, the foster kid. "You told Jefferies that I was here that night." At this, Jimi's back straightened, and he stopped backing. He swatted my hand away. He found his backbone. "You think everything's about you, don't you?" He actually took a step towards me, his anger overriding his fear. Idiot. "Poor little orphan boy." Don't kill him. I cannot kill him. There's a witness. "You know how lucky you are?" Lucky?! How the hell have I ever been lucky? The only good break I got was coming here, and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. "No one telling you you're not good enough, you're a disappointment." Oh, god. Why are you telling your family issues to me? "If that's family, who needs one?" I couldn't deal with him any more. My anger had faded, and replaced with repulsion. He was truly pathetic. "Next time you lose your temper, smash up your own things." I turned to leave. "Off to tell on me, are you?" I'm not that petty. I also don't need to. "He doesn't have to." Jimi's father spoke, having stayed quiet through Jimi's pitiable words. Jimi didn't speak, and they both walked towards the school. I turned and moved to the side of the building, waiting for Maddy and Tom to come back. I could smell them before I saw them. Tom stopped to talk to his father, and got in his car. Maddy came over to me.

Just then, Shannon stepped out of the building. Maddy and I walked to where Shannon was waiting. "Hey." "Hello." "Did you catch the vandal?" Maddy questioned us, eager to know if he had been caught. "No." Shannon sounded glum, but then perked up, "But we're going to keep looking. We didn't get to check everyone." Before Shannon could make further plans, I interrupted. "There's no need. Jimi did it." "What?" "Why?" I just shrugged, not sure how to answer their questions.

Maddy, Shannon and I were walking past the schoolyard when Maddy asked me, "Do you think he'll get expelled?" I wasn't sure, I didn't know how strict the headmaster was. "It's not my call." "He deserves it, for trying to get you done for it." "Jimi's got problems of his own." "Like what? His family's loaded." Shannon sounded scornful. "All families have problems. It's nothing to do with money." Maddy chastised her friend. Just then, a car went by, and we could tell that Jimi's dad was yelling at him. I would never have to deal with things like that. "Yeah, maybe I'm the lucky one being on my own." "You're not on your own," Maddy looked at Shannon quickly, then turning back to me. "You have us." I wasn't sure how to respond to the look that Maddy gave me, part sadness and part hope, but for what, I wasn't sure. When in doubt, escape before things get bad. "I've got to go."

I started heading towards the Vaughns' house, planning to take a detour through the woods, when I heard Maddy mutter something to Shannon, and started to jog towards me. "Rhydian! Wait up, will ya!" I stopped and turned to Maddy, watching her come towards me. "Yeah?" I was wondering why she wanted to come over here. "I want to talk with you." We both started walking through the woods. I was really enjoying being outside after having been in school for so long. "Why haven't you joined our pack yet? I know you don't really like people, but it's for the best." I tried to think of a good way to answer, because I knew Maddy wouldn't leave it alone, especially if she saw it as an opportunity to help me. "I don't really see why I should join your pack. You're not my family, and I'll be moving to a new home, soon enough." I shouldn't have said anything, because I could tell Maddy was going to react badly, and I was right. "How can you say things like that? When are you leaving? Why are you leaving? Where are you going to go?" I was not going to enjoy this conversation. I kept my eyes on my shoes, and kept walking, Maddy walking beside me. "Maddy, why should your family take care of me, when they have no obligation to do so. I don't let my foster parents take care of me, and they're required to. And as for the leaving, I'm supervised that I haven't been kicked out, with my record and all. I was in my last house for two weeks before I was kicked out, and five in the one before. I haven't been in one place for over a year since I was twelve. I could be moved any time, whether I want to or not." Maddy looked upset, so I changed the subject. "I don't want to leave, though. It's nice, being here."

Maddy laughed, but it sounded rather forced. "You say that 'cause you've been elsewhere! The only time Ah've ivvor left home was t' visit family friends in other villages, and if you've seen yen, ye've seen 'em all." What did she say? She must have been more upset than I thought, because I didn't understand everything that she said. "Maddy, could you repeat what you said, I only understood about half of it." She turned to face me, with a dumbfounded look on her face, clearly not expecting me to say something like that. "Ye divnt understand me accent? Must only be when Ah'm excited." She shook her head. "I'll try te talk better 'round you. When I'm at school, I speak better English, but when it's family, it's all Geordie, Mam especially." "I'm getting better at understanding what you say, it's just when you get really excited that it's hard. I used to be really bad, mixing Welsh and English. As far as the social workers could tell, I was raised bilingually, mostly knowing Welsh and some words in English. Being found, and growing up in England, I spoke English, so I've forgotten most of the Welsh that I knew."

We were talking for so long, we had gotten to the part of the woods where we had to separate, and start heading towards our houses. "I guess, this is bye, then?" "I'll see you later, yeah?" "Yeah." We parted, and I ran to the Vaughn's house, eager to get my homework done, and start drawing. There were a bunch of things that I wanted to start sketching.


End file.
